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Monday 26 July 2010

The Prime Minster, Julia Gillard, says she'll spend $96 million training new doctors and nurses for emergency departments. Her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, had worked hard to make reform of the health system a key policy area, and today in Tasmania, Ms Gillard attempted to put her stamp on the Federal Government's health strategy. More

The Coalition Leader, Tony Abbott, has used a visit to a childcare centre in a marginal Brisbane seat to announce an $89 million boost to the coalition's childcare budget. Mr Abbott has been campaigning in the seat of Petrie in Brisbane's northern outskirts. More

Voters in the Federal seat of Eden-Monaro in south-western New South Wales have a well-earned reputation for picking winners. For close to four decades the party of the candidate which has won the seat has also won the election. The sitting Labor MP, Mike Kelly, holds the seat by a slim margin. More

Two of the nation's top political pollsters join The World Today to discuss significant shifts in their respective poll results, after the first week of the federal election campaign. But their polls are heading in different directions. David Briggs from Galaxy Research has Labor gaining two points on the Coalition to give it a two-party preferred result of 52 to 48; while research by Newspoll's Martin O'Shannessy shows a sudden drop in the Labor vote. More

The chief executive of Universities Australia says the Federal Opposition's plans to cut immigration numbers could cripple the $18 billion international education industry. Glenn Withers says it's the wrong time to be talking about cuts, as student visas have already dropped by 20 per cent for the next semester. More

With US bank repossessions up by 38 per cent last quarter, thousands of homeowners turned up at a mortgage rescue event in Washington DC on the weekend, seeing it as a last chance to save their homes. The event was run by a group which encourages homeowners facing foreclosure to sit down with counsellors and their lenders, to try to hammer out a financial rescue plan. More

The US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, has declared a double-dip recession in the United States is unlikely. The debate in the US is now turning to when interest rates will be moved higher from the current figure of close to zero per cent. More

There's speculation that the chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, will step down within days. Mr Hayward has been the target of criticism over his handling of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Public relations experts say the company can only move forward if he goes. More

The first person to be tried for the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime is due to be sentenced in a joint international-Cambodian court in Phnom Penh today. The man known as Comrade Duch has confessed to torturing more than 12,000 people at the notorious S-21 prison; prosecutors are looking for a 40-year jail term. More

The African Union summit underway in Kampala is set to be dominated by discussions about terrorism on the continent. It's two weeks since 76 people were killed in twin bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital, for which the Somali-based Al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility. Mounting concerns about terrorism in Somalia have prompted calls for yet more international troops to be sent to the failed state to help combat extremism. More